WPI Battlecry 15

On May 24 and 25 the Aluminum Falcons competed at Battlecry 15 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute almost 60 teams from New England. This was the last major competition in an eventful season for the Falcons. While the team came in confident of their ability to perform well, especially as a strong scorer, Battlecry was an incredibly difficult competition with many great teams. Facing a tough schedule the Falcons only went 4-5 during qualification matches and were ranked 32nd.

Despite a losing record during qualification rounds the team was selected by the third ranked alliance captain 4048 Redshift as their first pick. It was unbelievable that despite the team’s shortcomings at Battlecry 4048 saw our potential and took a chance on us. We were ecstatic to work with Redshift, a team with which we had put up some of our highest scores during qualification matches this season. Our third pick was out of a hat, and it was incredible good luck that the alliance got 3719 STEM Whalers. 3719 is from New London so Team 2168 had worked often with them in the past. The STEM Whalers had an excellent drive team who could play defense as well as offense very effectively. Out of all the teams in the hat, 3719 would have been the team’s first choice.

The robots on our alliance were able to combine their unique strengths into a single cohesive unit and perform extraordinarily well together. 3719 would inbound the ball and use their claw to quickly dump the ball into 4048. 4048 would then shoot the ball over the truss to a human player who would inbound it to 2168 so we could score. This strategy worked very well and the alliance quickly advanced through the elimination rounds to the finals. The first match in the finals was close but the Falcons won it solidly 160-123. In the second match the alliance executed their strategy to perfection on their way to a 221-104 victory.

This was the first competition win for both 4048 and 3719 and the entire team was extremely happy to have helped them get it. It was an amazing turnaround for the Falcons to go from ranked in the lower half of all the teams to Battlecry champions for the second time in three years. Our alliance partners were awesome and we look forward to working with them in the future.